SriLankan Airlines likely to resume Kolkata flights once aircraft is available

SriLankan Airlines which used to run direct flights between Kolkata and Colombo before the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to resume its operations in the city.

Kolkata: SriLankan Airlines which used to run direct flights between Kolkata and Colombo before the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to resume its operations in the city following the availability of aircraft, a company official said.

The national carrier of Sri Lanka is currently concentrating on those passengers from this region who will travel to the island country’s capital via other cities in India, its regional manager V Ravindran said.

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“Kolkata will be considered once there is availability of aircraft. As of now, we cannot give you a timeline on when the airline will resume operations from Kolkata,” Ravindran said.

He also said that the demand for a direct connection will also be taken into consideration while deciding on resuming services from Kolkata, where the airline started its operations in 2017.

The airline used to operate three flights a week between Kolkata and Colombo before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the COVID-19 induced lockdown in India, SriLankan Airlines used to operate flights to 11 destinations in the country. In the post-pandemic scenario, it resumed operations at nine of them, barring Kolkata and Coimbatore.

Ravindran said the airlines carried 1,15,000 tourists from India to Sri Lanka between January and June this year.

Ravindran met a number of travel agents in Kolkata on Wednesday. They too asked him about the airline’s plan to restart the direct flights to Colombo from Kolkata.

“He told the travel agents that it will take some time,” the honorary secretary of the Travel Agents Association of India’s (TAAI) eastern region, Anjani Kumar Dhanuka, said.

Though some airlines, mostly international carriers, resumed their Kolkata operations post-pandemic, several are yet to do it, Dhanuka said.